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Jack Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis Essay

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The character in the novel Lord of the Flies that represents the Id, is Jack. In the Psychoanalytic lens, the Id is defined as the basic desire, or the fundamental root of what each person strives for. Expressing several characteristics of the Id, Jack continually leads the reader to infer Jack is the Id. Additionally, Jack has an enormous desire for control and leadership. As well as a difficult time keeping his desire, “in the background.” Thus, often interfering with Ralph’s leadership and views. Frequently, Jack attempts to turn the boys against Ralph, only caring for his own desires. For example, “He’s not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat. He isn’t a prefect and we don’t know anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey him for nothing. All this talk—” (Golding 126). Jack shows an example of his furor demeanor and his irate temper. A second reason to support the idea is that Jack portrays his desires against Ralph. The id of Lord of the Flies does not view the world …show more content…

In Lord of the Flies Ralph is elected by the boys in the beginning of the novel to be chief. After the shift of power shifts, Ralph also begins to fight for his right of power. The main character often views his opinions above the other boys. Especially with Jack, Ralph frequently ends his arguments with the statement, “I’m chief!” or explaining how his view is leading over the others. For example, ‘We can do without Jack Merridew. There’s others besides him on this island. But now we really got a beast, though I can’t hardly believe it, we’ll need to stay close to the platform; there’ll be less need of him and his hunting. So now we can really decide on what’s what” (128). The author describes Ralph through his opinions on other people. Moreover, his reactions when another has an opinion to overrule his is anger. Thus, showing his desires of being the prominent leader leads to a desire of

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These boys, Jack and Ralph, both fight for dominance during this novel, whilst grappling with their egos and desires. Ralph is the superior leader in, “Lord of the Flies,” due to his prioritizing the group’s welfare and emphasizing reason over primal instinct. Ralph's leadership prioritizes the group's welfare, he says “We've got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be a ship out there... ”(Golding 33)

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In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the character Jack has characteristics of The ID. The ID is the part of the mind in which instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest. Jack, displays this in chapter four when he is dancing in war paint for a religious ceremony. The author describes this event, stating, “[Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling”(64) Jack displays his natural instincts in this part of the story.

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Ralph’s inner conflict of the desire to rule and the desire to be a part of the hunting display both a man vs society and a man vs self-conflict. Ralph realizes at times that by hunting with Jack, he can provide safety needs, but also that he needs to rule the boys rather than Jack. As evident when, “Which is better- to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (Golding 180). It is evident the boys, as well as Ralph himself, are not sure whether they would rather have food or civilization.

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The story Lord of the Flies contains strong characters with various events that give them life. Jack, one of the main characters in the story, represents this thoroughly. During the story, Ralph and Piggy run into a choir group lead by a boy named Jack. Jack, like Ralph, show leader like qualities and they run against each other for the title of leader of the island. Jack loss the title to Ralph but they come to an agreement to make Jack chief of the island.

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Although more blatantly displayed towards the end of Lord of the Flies, Jack’s reliance on personal beliefs foreshadows the impending downfall of the boy’s order. When first met with the news of the group’s imminent solitude, Jack responds by saying, “Aren’t there any grownups? Then we’ll have to look after ourselves,” proving that the idea of self proclaimed power may have even appeared exciting” (21). Ralph’s introduction to Jack, indirectly characterizes Jack.

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A beast can take on many forms in the eyes of different people, from the darkness under a child’s bed, to the inner demons within each person Author William Golding uses this concept to display different themes in his novel, Lord of the Flies. The character of the “beast” evolves throughout the story to represent intriguing and abstract subjects as the plot progresses. In The Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, the “beast” is initially the boys’ fear, then a representation of war, and ultimately the savagery of human nature. Initially, the “beast” was introduced as a figment of the boys’ imagination, brought about by fear. It was at the first assembly, in which a littlun asked about, “the snake-thing” (Doc B).

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In The Lord of the Flies, Ralph was a better leader because he portrays respect, passion, and emotion. Throughout the book, Ralph illustrated respect for the whole group. Ralph respected Jack 's feelings towards not being voted chief, so Ralph put him in charge of hunting. Allowing Jack to be in charge of something on the island. Another example of respect was when Jack brought home the first kill Ralph saw to it that everyone was fed even if they did not hunt themselves.

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870 Words | 4 Pages

Jack says that he is unwilling to be a part of Ralph’s group any longer. This goes to show that he has left the civilized part of him behind in favor of his savage side. If Jack had stayed with the civilized boys, then the two groups would still be as one and the conflict between the Jack and Ralph would not have reached the high peaking point of which it

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Throughout the novel, Jack consistently demonstrates a disregard for rules and a desire for dominance and power. When he leads the boys in hunting and violence, he taps into their savage and primal instincts - including Ralph’s. As Jack proclaims, "The conch doesn't count at this end of the island" (Golding, 150) it becomes evident that he prioritizes dominance and power over order, authority, and the established rules on the island. In the midst of their destructive rivalry, Jack’s failures teach Ralph important lessons. Witnessing Jack’s inability to maintain the signal fire makes Ralph recognize the value of collaboration, communication, and planning for survival.

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Society has an evil deep within. Most don’t notice it because it is them, we are the evil, people are the evil. The Lord of the Flies novel written by William Golding was a look into the evil of society. This evil was conveyed through one specific character in the novel, Jack. Jack is a main character in the story whose personality is way different than we would expect a common 12 year old boy’s to be.

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Jack has changed greatly, over the course of William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Crashing onto an island without adults and having to survive put a strain on all of the boys, but Jack’s personality altered the most due to this experience. He went from living as an ambitious choir boy, to being a vicious, brutal, beast. Many things changed Jack on the island, but most of all, he created the monster he became.

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574 Words | 3 Pages

The changing relationship between Ralph and Jack, the protagonist and antagonist in Lord of the Flies is one where these two boys at first seem like allies but quickly diverge and distance themselves apart and soon become completely at odds with one another. Due to the different approaches they take in the leadership of a group of boys stranded on an uninhabited island, the group splits into two opposing and even warring factions, showing the severity of their antagonism.   In the beginning, relations between Ralph and Jack are not as hostile. When they explore their island, they appear to act like friends, fooling around and casually playing.

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671 Words | 3 Pages

Lord of the Flies Personalities In Lord of the Flies by William Golding their was several different personality traits throughout the characters. These traits were defined by Sigmund Freud a psychologist who was an influential thinker of the early twentieth century.(Thornton). Jack represents Id in Freud’s personality theory which defines him as the character who acts for the short term and pleasure immediately. Ralph represents Ego which acts as the middle ground between Id and Superego or the realistic trait.

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496 Words | 2 Pages

Near the end of their time on the island, Piggy, Sam, and Eric are the only ones left with Ralph, and Jack, who appears as “a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear” (Golding 168). Jack starts to get violent, and what was fun when they first got to the island become attempts to kill. At this point, Jack has fully taken over, and the only thing left for him to do is kill Ralph. Lord of the Flies exemplifies how when one person has all of the power, there is always somebody else that wants it more than that person. Ralph is not against Jack, nor does he want to fight with him for the chief position, but ambition and violence overtakes Jack, and he turns into a dangerous savage.

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694 Words | 3 Pages

Ralph continually tries to advocate for a moralistic approach to governing the other boys, and though he fails often, he attempts to protect the weaker children by defending and watching over them. In other words, Ralph tries to protect the rights of all of the boys, though he realizes that they are in an anarchical system. Ralph is concerned with each “state” benefiting from the system, disregarding that the hunters will benefit more in the system they had developed. This contrasts to Jack’s need to be stronger and possess more power than Ralph’s “state”. In the end, Ralph is overrun by the hunters and forced to run, a fulfilled expectation after the breakdown of cooperation among the two groups or

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